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Rudy Giuliani: Radical Islamic terrorism didn't happen before 2008

Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Speaking at a Donald Trump rally in Youngstown, Ohio, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemingly misspoke when he said that radical Islamic terrorism didn’t begin in America until President Barack Obama was elected into office.

“Under those eight years before Obama came along we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attacks in the U.S. They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office,” he said.

Video of Rudy saying we didn't "have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attacks in the U.S." before Obama: pic.twitter.com/3tC1InfZj0

Giuliani was in his final months New York City’s mayor in 2001 when Islamic extremists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, killing thousands.

"Sept. 11, when we went through the worst foreign attack in our history since the War of 1812 ... and they didn't start it in 2001, they attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, and they did it under the ideology of radical Islamic extremism," Giuliani said, not 30 seconds before his claim about President Obama.

Giuliani's full speech can be viewed below.

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.

Copyright 2016 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.